VWB USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Special Program Support Project
Agreement # AID-OAA-A-13-00053
Work Plan for October 1, 2015-September 30, 2016
Overview: Veterinarians Without Borders is pleased to continue implementing the Farmer-to-Farmer
program under the Special Program Support Project (SPSP PDP). We proposed to execute a minimum of
24 assignments in Ethiopia and 24 assignments in Uganda in FY14-18. In fiscal year 2016 we estimate
fielding 17 in Uganda and 8 in Ethiopia or 25 total.
Headquarters Operations: The VWB Headquarters staffs, in cooperation with VEGA, are responsible
for managing both country programs, approval of project strategies and recruiting and supporting the
Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers. VWB Headquarters program staff will continue the following tasks in
FY15-16:
 Develop program management, monitoring and evaluation systems including Host Profiles and Project
Strategies. We will write Volunteer Scopes of Work based on the template provided by VEGA. VWB’s
program management system will report on the program impact indicators from the SPSP indicator
table.
 Recruit and support volunteer assignments.
 Inform VWB members and others about the Farmer-to-Farmer program and upcoming volunteer
projects.
 Carry out all tasks related to closing out the project at the end of FY16.
Proposed Volunteer Activities:
We plan to field at least 25 volunteers to Uganda and Ethiopia in FY16 as follows:
Estimated Volunteer Projects in FY16
Uganda
Ethiopia
Total
Quarter 4
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Oct-Dec
2015
1
2
3
Jan-Mar
2016
3
0
3
Apr-Jun
2016
3
3
6
Jul-Sep
2016
10
3
13
Total
17
8
25
In Uganda, VWB plans to execute volunteer projects in the following disciplines:

Disease recognition training and reporting for producers (x3)

Transboundary disease sampling and necropsy techniques (x3)

Small livestock husbandry (x2)

Food Safety training (milk, meat, eggs) producer to processor (x3)

Ministry of Agriculture training in OIE compliance for transboundary disease control (3)
In Ethiopia, we plan to execute volunteer projects in the following disciplines:

Disease recognition training and reporting for producers (x2)

Transboundary disease sampling and necropsy techniques (x2)

Small livestock husbandry (x1)

Food Safety training (milk, meat, eggs) producer to processor (x1)

Ministry of Agriculture training in OIE compliance for transboundary disease control (2)
The order to do projects in and identify which projects each host organization will participate in will be
determined by the field staff and volunteer availability. We anticipate that the host organizations will
participate in a carefully thought out program of assistance consisting of multiple volunteer projects. This
program of assistance will be referred to as a Project Strategy.
As we have noted above, this list is not intended to be the last word on our project plans. We have already
experienced host organizations request for assistance in project categories that are not on this list at some
point during the project and we have been able to accommodate some of that work by including it in
existing work plans. The headquarters management team will encourage the field staff to regard this list
as a guideline, and to pursue targets of opportunity as they present themselves.
FY13 Country Specific Work Plans:
Uganda
Context: Uganda’s 2013 Global Hunger Index is classified as “serious” by the International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI).1 Food insecurity in Uganda affects up to 20% of the population. At the same
time, the country has low levels of agricultural productivity compared to other countries in the region.
Combine low agricultural productivity with an annual population that is growing by 3.2% per year and it
is clear that Uganda’s current production cannot keep pace with increasing local demand.
Value chains being targeted: Livestock: Small and medium holder livestock raising is critically important
to “the bottom billion’s” resilience and food security. Cattle, sheep, goats and chickens, form an integral
part of traditional crop-livestock production systems throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa and East
African pastoralists in particular. This economic safety net for households, especially for women and
children, is often put at risk because of trade embargos put in place as a consequence of a lack of
reporting and control of transboundary diseases in livestock. The World Trade Organizations rules for
livestock trade are embodied in their Sanitary and Phytosanitary rules and monitored by the World
Organization for Animal Health PVS pathway for disease control compliance. When these reportable
diseases cross borders or continents, they can have devastating consequences to populations of animals
that are susceptible and unexposed to these organisms, with resulting trade closure that can reduce the
value of livestock to half and less of their real value. Livestock rearing has remained primarily small in
scope, particularly small ruminants, but this subsistence scope is slowly changing. These animals
represent both a significant food source for the poor and a consistent annual income stream. To enhance
the development of this evolving business sector, there are ample opportunities for significant volunteer
1
http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ib79.pdf
technical assistance in the areas of small livestock care, disease recognition, processing and marketing to
positively affect food security and food safety.
Opportunities: Livestock health is essential for both food security and economic growth, and constitutes a
potential path out of poverty for much of the world. Many livestock diseases are transmissible to humans
(zoonotic), and improved recognition and control of these diseases could markedly enhance human
health, through decreasing disease transmission and improving human nutrition. Additionally, improved
health of draft animals used for tilling of croplands and haulage of produce further stabilizes food sources
for both human and livestock populations.
Developing countries often have difficulty maintaining and improving animal health, primarily
because insufficient surveillance limits the ability to discern the extent and location of diseases and their
sources, making it impossible to efficiently invest scarce resources for control. Improving animal health
through increasing awareness of disease recognition by field personnel (also known as passive
surveillance) is the core of our project, focusing on two countries with identified needs in this area –
Uganda and Ethiopia.
Our project fills a valuable niche in a large new program being implemented by the African
Union – Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR). The Standard Methods and Procedures in
Animal Health (SMP-AH) program, developed and initiated by the AU-IBAR through funding from
USAID, aims to increase awareness of key diseases at all levels of livestock production. The goal of the
SMP-AH is to establish both national and regional disease control programs to create a coordinated
approach for reporting and controlling diseases for countries which depend on livestock health for their
economic well-being. The impetus for this program began almost 15 years ago, when an outbreak of Rift
Valley fever, a severe disease of ruminants, which is also transmissible to humans (zoonotic), and which
surfaces periodically in East Africa, was inadvertently transported to the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian
Peninsula then instituted extensive trade embargoes of animals, creating far-reaching economic hardship
for many East African nations. The Arabian Peninsula maintained the embargo for almost a decade,
primarily because the East African nations were not able to demonstrate required surveillance to comply
with the World Organization for Animal Health standards and prove freedom from disease.
Constraints: Enhancing surveillance, especially passive surveillance, is centered on reporting
spontaneous disease from the field level up to the government level. This is in contrast to the more
frequently utilized approach of “active” surveillance, which is top-down, and targeted to merely one or
two specific diseases. The OIE has identified passive surveillance as an essential aspect of a solid
National Veterinary Authority, in order to increase the viability of the country’s agriculture on the global
market. As the OIE is the body which sets standards for the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement
of the World Trade Organization, complying with these OIE standards leverages ability to trade, and
thereby stabilizes both individual livelihoods and national economies.
The aim of this project is to improve the human resource capacity at the field level with those
personnel closest to the animals. We will create increased awareness among them of key diseases, and
will establish a sustainable system for passive surveillance. There will be multiple positive impacts as a
result of supporting and sustaining passive surveillance. First, by identifying problems in the field, action
can be taken to initiate immediate disease diagnosis and control before the disease becomes a widely
spread outbreak. As a result, animal health and production benefits, and nutritional status of smallholders
improves, with a net effect of improving economics all along the value chain. Second, effective passive
surveillance will demonstrate to trading partners that both live animals and livestock commodity products
are reliable, thus increasing animal product value for the national economy. A third very significant
impact will be reduction in human disease due to recognition and control of those livestock pathogens
transmissible to humans (zoonotic diseases).
The largest anticipated constraints we envision are 1) limited abilities of small holders with limited
resources to connect to the veterinary community and initiate a response when an outbreak is recognized,
2) for the local veterinary community to respond to the producers report and 3) for the national
government to respond, transport materials in a stable manner allowing preservation of sample integrity
(cold chain and timeliness) and have resources at the national laboratory to diagnose the panoply of
diseases which exist.
Description of F2F Project and Areas in Which Volunteers Will Be Used: F2F Volunteers will work with
groups of small livestock herders, smallholders, traders, transporters and butchers to learn to identify
diseases of highest consequence and report them to District authorities:
 Training farmers and others who handle livestock along the value chain (veterinarians, herders,
smallholders, traders, transporters and butchers) using low literacy materials that are graphic
dense, to recognize suspected transboundary diseases;
 Training veterinarians in necropsy and sample handling techniques required for improving
disease diagnostics and organism recovery or identification;
 Training in appropriate record keeping, sample collection, processing, evaluation, and reporting;
 Training in improved disease control and containment of infected individuals and herds;
 Training processors in improved disease recognition and reporting
Partners: We anticipate working closely with other USAID horticulture implementers (there are no
wholly Ugandan Livestock projects currently), Catholic Relief Services, the East Africa Dairy
Development Program and their consortium partners in Heifer International, African Breeder Services,
ILRI, as well as other livestock focus groups at CIAT, IFPRI, International Institute of Rural
Reconstruction, Mercy Corps, etc.
Host Institutions: The principle Host Institution is the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture, Animal
Industries, and Fisheries with the focus at the District veterinary offices. F2F Volunteers will be placed
with groups of farmers, traders, marketers, slaughterhouse personnel and veterinarians, who are active in
production, processing and sale of livestock. We have been very fortunate to work with the National
Animal Disease Diagnostic and Epidemiology Center as well as the National Agricultural Research
Organization to enhance disease diagnostics and reporting.
Ethiopia
Context: Ethiopia’s 2013 Global Hunger Index is classified as “alarming” by the International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).2 Ethiopia’s small-scale producers face severe difficulties attaining food
security. Cyclical drought, regional low yields for many commodities and thin margins after debt
repayments combine with volatile commodity prices and high input costs to create a vicious cycle for
Ethiopia’s farmers. Caught in this cycle, many small-scale producers never make enough money to make
the productivity enhancing investments in their farms that might lead to higher incomes and a better
standard of living. This includes disease prevention practices such as vaccination or treatment that could
double livestock offtake annually.
Value Chains being targeted: Livestock: Small and medium holder livestock rearing is critically
important to “the bottom billion’s” resilience and food security. Cattle, sheep, goats and chickens, form
an integral part of traditional crop-livestock production systems throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa
and East African pastoralists in particular. This economic safety net for households, especially for
women and children, is often put a risk because of trade embargos put in place as a consequence of a lack
of reporting and control of transboundary diseases in livestock. The World Trade Organizations rules for
2
http://www.ifpri.org/book-8018/ourwork/researcharea/global-hunger-index
livestock trade are embodied in their Sanitary and Phytosanitary rules and monitored by the World
Organization for Animal Health PVS pathway for disease control compliance. When these reportable
diseases cross borders or continents, they can have devastating consequences to populations of animals
that are susceptible and unexposed to these organisms with resulting trade closure that can reduce the
value of livestock to half and less of their real value. Livestock rearing has remained primarily small in
scope, particularly small ruminants, but this subsistence scope is slowly changing. These animals
represent both a significant food source for the poor and a consistent annual income stream. To enhance
the development of this evolving business sector, there are ample opportunities for significant volunteer
technical assistance in the area of small livestock care, disease recognition, processing and marketing to
positively affect food security and food safety.
Opportunities: Livestock health is essential for both food security and economic growth, and constitutes a
potential path out of poverty for much of the world. Many livestock diseases are transmissible to humans
(zoonotic), and improved recognition and control of these diseases could markedly enhance human
health, through decreasing disease transmission and improving human nutrition. Additionally, improved
health of draft animals used for tilling of croplands and haulage of produce further stabilizes food sources
for both human and livestock populations.
Developing countries often have difficulty maintaining and improving animal health, primarily
because insufficient surveillance limits the ability to discern the extent and location of diseases and their
sources, making it impossible to efficiently invest scarce resources for control. Improving animal health
through increasing awareness of disease recognition by field personnel (also known as passive
surveillance) is the core of our project, focusing on two countries with identified needs in this area –
Uganda and Ethiopia.
Our project fills a valuable niche in a large new program being implemented by the African
Union – Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR). The Standard Methods and Procedures in
Animal Health (SMP-AH) program, developed and initiated by the AU-IBAR through funding from
USAID, aims to increase awareness of key diseases at all levels of livestock production. The goal of the
SMP-AH is to establish both national and regional disease control programs to create a coordinated
approach for reporting and controlling diseases for countries which depend on livestock health for their
economic well-being. The impetus for this program began almost 15 years ago, when an outbreak of Rift
Valley fever, a severe disease of ruminants, which is also transmissible to humans (zoonotic), and which
surfaces periodically in East Africa, was inadvertently transported to the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian
Peninsula then instituted extensive trade embargoes of animals, creating far-reaching economic hardship
for many East African nations. The Arabian Peninsula maintained the embargo for almost a decade,
primarily because the East African nations were not able to demonstrate required surveillance to comply
with the World Organization for Animal Health standards and prove freedom from disease.
Constraints: Enhancing surveillance, especially passive surveillance, is centered on reporting spontaneous
disease from the field level up to the government level. This is in contrast to the more frequently utilized
approach of “active” surveillance, which is top-down, and targeted to merely one or two specific diseases.
The OIE has identified passive surveillance as an essential aspect of a solid National Veterinary
Authority, in order to increase the viability of the country’s agriculture on the global market. As the OIE
is the body which sets standards for the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement of the World Trade
Organization, complying with these OIE standards leverages ability to trade, and thereby stabilizes both
individual livelihoods and national economies.
The aim of this project is to improve the human resource capacity at the field level with those personnel
closest to the animals. We will create increased awareness among them of key diseases, and will establish
a sustainable system for passive surveillance. There will be multiple positive impacts as a result of
supporting and sustaining passive surveillance. First, by identifying problems in the field, action can be
taken to initiate immediate disease diagnosis and control before the disease becomes a widely spread
outbreak. As a result, animal health and production benefits, and nutritional status of smallholders
improves, with a net effect of improving economics all along the value chain. Second, effective passive
surveillance will demonstrate to trading partners that both live animals and livestock commodity products
are reliable, thus increasing animal product value for the national economy. A third very significant
impact will be reduction in human disease due to recognition and control of those livestock pathogens
transmissible to humans (zoonotic diseases).
The largest anticipated constraints we envision are 1) limited abilities of small holders with limited
resources to connect to the veterinary community and initiate a response when an outbreak is recognized,
2) for the local veterinary community to respond to the producers report and 3) for the national
government to respond, transport materials in a stable manner allowing preservation of sample integrity
(cold chain and timeliness) and have resources at the national laboratory to diagnose the panoply of
diseases which exist.
Description of F2F Project and Areas in Which Volunteers Will Be Used: F2F Volunteers will work with
groups of small livestock herders, smallholders, traders, transporters and butchers to learn to identify
diseases of highest consequence and report them to District authorities:
 Training farmers and others who handle livestock along the value chain (veterinarians, herders,
smallholders, traders, transporters and butchers) using low literacy materials that are graphic
dense, to recognize suspected transboundary diseases;
 Training veterinarians in necropsy and sample handling techniques required for improving
disease diagnostics and organism recovery or identification;
 Training in appropriate record keeping, sample collection, processing, evaluation, and reporting;
 Training in improved disease control and containment of infected individuals and herds;
 Training processors in improved disease recognition and reporting
Partners: VWB plans to work with groups of farmers who we will come in contact with through the
Livestock Market Development program implemented by CNFA, PRIME implemented by Mercy Corps,
and Catholic Relief services who oversee the Farmer to Farmer programs for East Africa. We will also
work with veterinary colleges in Ethiopia, and have already established working relationships with Debre
Zeit College of Veterinary Medicine, ILRI and local farmer groups supported by our partners.
Host Institutions: The principle Host Institution is the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture with the focus at
the woreda (District) veterinary offices. F2F Volunteers will be placed with groups of farmers, traders,
marketers, slaughterhouse personnel and veterinarians, who are active in production, processing and sale
of livestock.
Proposed Program Staff Travel:
Program Manager Thomas Graham will live in Kampala September 1 2015- July 1, 2016 as part of a
Fulbright Scholar award and plans to Ethiopia in September to hopefully finalize registration was invited
to present our work to the Ethiopian Veterinary Medical Association.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia September 2015 for planning and coordination (requesting funds $1200)
Harare, Zimbabwe October for possible extension of work and future development of SSLH (requesting
Funds $1200)
Berlin, Germany, Interagency Donor Group, November 18-20: Global livestock implementers (requesting
funds $1500)
Washington DC December 3-4 for the F2F implementer’s meeting (Required attendance)
Redwood City, California, April Global Philanthropy Forum (requesting funds $3000)
Corrie Brown plans to travel to Ethiopia to help train in Mekelle University in November-December with
the team. Corrie Brown will lead the first 2 or 3 training sessions in pathology as requested by the Dean
of Mekelle and because of her specific expertise in this area. There after the volunteers will lead and
instruct in the communities.
Expected Impacts: Indicators, Benchmarks and Targets Uganda and Ethiopia
Indicator FY2016
Number of Volunteers Minimum
Number of Volunteer-Days (average 30 days per vol)
Number of Host Organizations
Number of Innovations or Technologies Recommended by
Volunteers
Number of Volunteer Recommended Innovations or Technologies
Adopted
Number of Hosts Adopting Volunteer Recommendations
Number of Direct Participating Beneficiaries (taught advised by
volunteers)
Number of Country Economic Projects
Uganda
Ethiopia
17
510
1
3
8
270
1
3
2
2
1
270
1
270
0
0
Program Contacts:
Thomas W. Graham DVM MPVM PhD
1124 Pistachio Ct.
Davis, California 95618
916-769-3696 (cell)
530-753-1886 (off)
530-753-6172 (fax)
Skype thomas_w_graham
CEO, Veterinarians Without Borders/Vétérinaires Sans Frontières
http://www.vetswithoutbordersus.org
Corrie Brown, DVM, PhD, DACVP
Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-7388
P: (706) 542-5842
F: (706) 542-5828
E: corbrown@uga.edu